


The Dagger You Carry

by nowstfucallicles



Series: A Shift in Power [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Kneeling, M/M, One Shot, POV Hux, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, first touch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-17 01:30:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13648602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowstfucallicles/pseuds/nowstfucallicles
Summary: Ren rose from the throne. He came forward, slowly, his eyes fixed on the blade. Hux watched his every movement, keeping his hand in place and waiting. Keeping his mind blank and his fingers fast on the hilt until they stood face to face.





	The Dagger You Carry

“The blade,” Ren said. “Show it to me.”

Hux had bowed his head, ready to take his leave. He straightened himself with a jolt, looking up at Ren. _The blade._ He regarded him for a moment, then he gave a curt nod. 

“Since you don’t require further briefing, I will be needed on the bridge.”

“You’ll be dismissed when I see fit.” Ren’s voice was low, almost a murmur. He began to move, leaning forward on the throne. “The dagger you carry. I want to see it.”

Hux tilted his head. “Seeing as preparations for the landing are imminent and I’m to oversee the --”

“Consider it an order.” 

Hux fell silent. It had not been a shot in the dark, he could tell. Ren knew of the thing. Knew enough of it to take interest. To not let it go. Hux tensed his arm, the metal of the sheath pressing against his wrist. How had he found out?

“What do you want, Ren?”

Ren looked at him, barely raising his head. “I won’t say it again.”

Hux couldn’t quite see his face except for the eyes, their steady flicker in the dark. He could see that Ren would not relent. He would not let up until he got what he wanted. A sudden, cool disgust coiled in Hux and he flexed his arm once more. Any order like this would have been insolent. Any request like this, calling for his weaponry as if he had been a cadet under inspection. But this wasn’t any weapon. It was…

He stepped closer to the throne, keeping his eyes on Ren. What did he know? He must have delved into his thoughts, but how deep had he gone, how far? No one else knew of it, truly knew of it, he had made sure of that. He had trained himself to hide it, from the very beginning. Hide it not only from sight but within his own thoughts. Conceal its true purpose, even from the likes of Ren. Especially from Ren. Hux bit down on a curse, his eyes shifting to the back of the room. Darting along the walls. 

“There’s no one here.” Ren’s gaze had followed his. “I sent the guards away.”

“Ill-advised, this deep in enemy territory.”

“You know better than to assume I need them.” He nodded towards Hux’s arm. “Go ahead.”

“What is this about, Ren?”

“You’ll see.”

Hux moved, his lips baring a sneer. Slowly he brought his right hand forward. There was no point in resisting Ren. No point in defying him over something he already knew. Hux had been suspecting that his thoughts were being read, ever since Ren’s rise. There had been a time when he had been able to sense it. Sense the pressure of Ren’s presence in his thoughts, the edge of his power in his mind. Weakly, but distinctly. Then the sensation had ceased. It had stopped like gunfire under a silencer. Ren had been looking for something, Hux was sure of it. Digging for something. For what? 

It couldn't have been just the blade. Hux straightened his glove, tightening it at the cuff. He would have to improve further, to employ another technique or devise a new one. His mind needed to be impenetrable, now more than ever. There were thoughts that could betray him, memories, plans that would betray him if he failed to obscure them. Regardless of what Ren had found, it would be the last thing for him to find. Hux’s hand curled into a fist. He had come so far, had covered his tracks so well. If he kept going, continued on as he had… He did not finish the thought. Silenced it. 

“You’ve had it for a long time,” Ren said, looking down at Hux’s arm. “A strange weapon for someone like you.”

“I have enemies. It’s a simple fact. I did not get where I am by treading lightly.”

There was a surge of pride he did not try to conceal. He had always thought of it with pride. The names of those he had left behind, he still remembered all of them. Relished them. He had rarely done it himself, but when he had, with the blade near his hand, he had relished even the act. There was nothing like it. No triumph like it. Letting an enemy come closer and closer. Letting them come, near enough so he might finish them. In the right place, at the right time, that way any life was easy to take.

With a quick look at Ren, he raised his hand. Letting the dagger spring forward from his sleeve. There was a sudden thrill as he gripped it, pointing it aside to present it. The silver glinting in front of his eyes. 

Ren rose from the throne. He came forward, slowly, his eyes fixed on the blade. Hux watched his every movement, keeping his hand in place and waiting. Keeping his mind blank and his fingers fast on the hilt until they stood face to face. It wasn’t one of those moments. One of those rare, relished ones. But something in him tensed, hardened nonetheless. Until he felt his fingers twitch within their grip.

“It’ll cut through anything,” Ren said. “With ease. The first time it surprised you, didn’t it?” 

Hux watched him, a haze of the memory crossing his eyes. He blinked rapidly, shutting it out. One of his strongest memories, one of those he had most carefully obscured.

“You made a mess,” Ren said. “Back then, in the chamber. But you got away. You brought him the death you had promised him.”

Hux breathed through gritted teeth. He suppressed the memory, but the images kept echoing through his mind. 

“Stop this.”

“Never hesitated. He was nothing to you. They were all nothing.” Ren’s voice fell away. For a moment he seemed to think. To concentrate. “You have no regret.” 

Hux despised him. Despised him for knowing. For having seen it, found it. All of it. 

“And you?”

Ren’s eyes flashed at him, then they sank away. “No.”

It would have been easy, too easy. Hux willed the beginning of the thought away, the numb tension in his hand. The suggestion that seemed to come from his blood, like a call from a distance. To just trust his hand. Trust its swiftness, as he had those times before. Trust that it was ready. Hux turned the hilt over in his hand. This was not the time. He would not make any rash decisions. Wait for the moment. Wait for the day. For as long as it would take. 

“It’s no use,” Ren said. His voice was toneless and quiet. “I see it. I already know your thoughts.”

“What do you know?” 

Ren touched the side of the blade. Feeling it with his finger. “The slow, half-awake hours you allow yourself to rest. You dream of it.”

Hux stared at him silently, a sudden rage flaring through his thoughts. A boundless, blind instinct he knew well.

“You won’t succeed,” Ren said.

“I won’t have you --“

“It consumes you.” Ren’s fingers withdrew from the blade. “But it’s not enough.”

“Why not?” Hux spat out. “Why shouldn’t I --?” A hot shiver went through him and his fingers tightened on the hilt. He would not be mocked. Not be toyed with. Not by him. Ren’s eyes met his, quiet and alive. 

“You want something else. You don’t even know.” 

Hux froze, swallowing hoarsely against a scream. He wondered now, recklessly, his thoughts no longer concealed, how fast it would have to be. How close he would have to come, how much closer, for his blade to reach. How much time, until the Force would hit him? He could almost feel its vertigo, right there. For a phantom moment he could feel Ren’s power build and flood towards him. Then it passed. He was unafraid, numb. Feverish with purpose.

Ren sank down. His knees touched the ground and he was looking up at Hux, looking at him as if from another place. Kneeling before him. It was inconceivable, a provocation unlike anything, and for a blind, hot moment Hux started towards him. He was so close. The blade, mere inches away from Ren’s eye, so very close. But some instinct, some unknown stirring held Hux’s hand back. It told him to get away. It told him not to make another step. Not to move. 

“Games. Tricks,” he whispered between his teeth.

“I don’t need them with you.”

Hux did not move, but held his hand steady. Even as Ren took hold of it, gripping it and bringing it closer still. Hux watched him, his thoughts going blank, white-hot. He watched as Ren lowered his head, as his mouth opened and sank onto the cuff of his glove. His tongue ran along Hux’s hand, one heavy, slow motion. Licking the side of his wrist. His eyes remained half-closed, his face sealed exept for where his lips had parted. Wet, straining. He leant back on his knees, his eyes resting on Hux.

“How dare you…” Hux stared down at his hand. At the dark streak on its side where he had felt Ren, felt his mouth, its slow heat through the glove. 

One motion that had been enough to consume all of his rage. The pulsing heat of his purpose, of being so close. He held on to the dagger, but his fingers had stretched out along the hilt. Wanting to follow that touch, that mouth. Have it. It was a different kind of want, encompassing, unhinged. But his own. He could feel it, could be sure of it. Somewhere inside him it had been festering, undermining his will. Weakening it. He gazed at Ren, at his mouth that was so close still. With a turn of his hand he let the dagger snap back into its sheath. 

“You think I want this?”

There was a smile about Ren’s lips. A hint of triumph. Hux grabbed him, digging his fingers into his jaw. That mouth below him – like a thing he could simply take. He dragged his finger along Ren’s lips, slowly. Over that thick, pliant red. He could feel the warmth, the rim of Ren’s teeth against his finger tips and he pressed in, with a huff of greed, of surprise. There was nothing in Ren’s face, no threat, no challenge, just stillness. But there was a change in his eyes, a blink of something as he opened his mouth. 

Hux let his finger dip in, aching for that hollow. Wondering if it was worth losing his mind for, only for a moment, only for a taste. He pushed another finger in, along the quiver of Ren’s tongue, and for a moment it all blurred. For one insane moment he did not know who was at the mercy of whom. Did not know who had succumbed to whom, did not know how to remember where he stood. Then it passed, it passed without either of them moving. Ren, on his knees before him. 

The sight of Ren’s mouth, gaping around his fingers as if frozen in time. Spit was seeping through his glove, warm, repulsive, delicious. He lowered his face, catching the flicker in Ren’s eye. He could see it now, more clearly. The change in his eyes, in his features. A tremor of heat. Barely there, but Hux had seen it. A writhing greed. He wanted to sneer at it, but instead it left him with a feeling of hot, slick chaos. Of power beyond power. Powerlessness beyond powerlessness. 

Then in slipped from him. Ren sprung to his feet, shedding his touch with a flash of energy. His power radiating off of him as if to burn everything in its vicinity. He stood, facing Hux. Close, with only a thin raging current between them. Hux watched him through it, not backing down. He would not forfeit. He held Ren’s gaze, his mind still pulsing with the feel of his mouth, taut with wanting that taste, wanting it enough to take him apart. With a snarl he watched the glow build in Ren’s eyes. Then it darkened, went out.

“We’re done,” Ren said. It was a voice Hux had never heard from him. “Get out.”

He breathed into Ren’s face, part of him wanting to risk it. He could feel the force between them like a blade and he loathed Ren. Loathed him more than he had ever before. Then he stepped back. He pushed back his hair and tightened his glove. It would smell of Ren. Smell of that mouth, of its taste, even dry. He watched as Ren sank back onto the throne. His eyes had turned away and his face was motionless.

Hux did not bother to conceal his thoughts. Nothing to clear his mind from what flashed through it. The feel of it, the clarity of what he saw. Wanted. Ren lying on his back, in the shade below the throne. His skin flushed with blood and his neck yielding, tender under Hux’s knee. His mouth was jerking with each breath, open, ready. As ready as it just had been. Hux did not loathe him, not like this. And yet he did. With a dull throbbing in his temple he knew that none of it was beyond reason anymore. None of it was beyond possibility. 

He took another look at Ren, before turning around and heading for the doors. With his hands clasped behind his back, he pressed his arm against the sheath. He had been close this time. 

So close.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism welcome!


End file.
